On Saturday, February 23rd, the whole family headed to Troy, Illinois so that I could lead a seminar by invitation from my good friend from Asbury Seminary days, Tim Price. Tim has a great ministry that he has been leading for years. Each year he gathers a talented group of college students as a singing, game-leading, worshipful ministry team. Over the summers Tim travels with them all over the Midwest and sometimes beyond. During the school year, he sometimes gathers them together for special events like the Fire Up youth conference. He calls his ministry "Harvest".
When he started Harvest, he wasn't much older than the college aged team members. Nowadays he gets mistaken for their father whenever they make a stop for fast food.
The Fire Up Conferences started in 1997 with yours truly as the first speaker. Tim had created a little history display for this year's Fire Up:
He even still uses a banner that I painted for him 15 years ago:
I love the Scripture reference. It comes from Jeremiah 20:9. The prophet is talking about all the flack he has taken for speaking on God's behalf and how he is tempted sometimes to throw in the towel and just shut his mouth, "But if I say, 'I will not remember Him or speak anymore in His name,' then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I am weary of holding it in, and I cannot endure it."
Tim's home church - where his dad has pastored since 1988 (which has to be some sort of record for a United Methodist church!) - graciously hosts this event each year. Over three hundred teens and their youth pastors and adult sponsors attend and the Troy UMC families host the participants in their homes. It is quite the production! Tim coordinates the housing, the feeding, the main speaker, the worship music, seminar speakers and the clean up. I hope he got a nap on Sunday afternoon...
It's getting late, so I'll have to make this a two (or three) parter. I'll just close with some pictures of our kids enjoying the weekend. They were so excited because Tim put us up in a hotel with an indoor swimming pool. This process of raising funds for our upcoming ministry in Haiti continues to be such a blessing not only to me and Melissa, but to our whole family ... but maybe I'll tell you more about that in a day or two:
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| Dats and Ida riding the elevator down to the pool. Not sure exactly why Ida is standing that way except for the fact that he's a big ball of goof. |
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| The Princess in particular really enjoyed the chance to swim. |
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| We often had the pool to ourselves. |
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